Cronos
by Topjack
Summary: An encounter with a stoic window and a mutant lion lead an aloof but kind man into a bizarre world.
1. Have a nice trip

"_**Hickory dickory dock the mouse ran up the clock, though before it could reach the top it realized how infinitely small it is in the grand scheme of the universe and vowed to change that."**_

It hadn't been what one would call the calmest of storms, far from it in fact raging thunder and lighting often enough to worry an epileptic though that was not a concern of young Ezekiel Slot, who was for one not epileptic and two not near a window at the present moment he was far to busy feeling like crap.

You see Zeke was not a pragmatic man, he had neglected to bring an umbrella with him on the previous days errands despite the dark clouds forming, and then the rain fell. Every drop on his rapidly soaking self reminded him of boyhood reminders that he would catch a cold in the rain which he took some small amount of pride in the fact that he hadn't caught a cold; oh no that's boy stuff.

He had a fever. His inner masochist giggled like a fool. Lying in his bed he was attempting to enter the peaceful land of slumber but the ticking of his clock kept him aware. How he could even hear it over the thunder was something he would concern himself when existence seemed worth it again.

"Wait a tick" he thought (regretfully in his present state he lacked the sense of humor to admire his unintended pun)

"I don't have an analog clock." he realized. Slowly, carefully, and (most importedly) painfully removed himself from the therapeutic membrane between his bed and blanket and faced the direction of this visiting clock while he saw no clock he saw his window facing the outside world, dark (as night often is), flashes of lightning, and trees, but what confused him was what appeared to be a metal stick rotating in place almost like a clock hand.

"Clock." he said around to no one in particular.

"_tick__"_ it responded, followed by a "tock."

"Just hovering..." he continued.

"_tick__"_ it chimed in.

"Outside"

"_tock"_

"My"

"_tick"_

"Window"

"_tock__"_ it continued rather apathetic to his present crisis of comprehension.

"This is odd"

"_tick"_

"seeing as how clock hands"

"_tock"_

"don't often hover outside

"_tick"_

"of windows especially"

"_tock"_

"when last I checked"

"_tick"_

"I didn't have"

"_tock"_

"a window for them"

"_tick"_

"to hover outside of."

"_tock"  
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"Yes quite curious."

"_tick"_

"Tell you what mystery window"

"_tock"_

"I'll turn around"

"_tick"_

"and you go away"

"_tock"_

"Sound fair to you?"

"_tick"_

"Okay I'll do that ya big nut."

He turned his back to the visiting window, before he could complete his rotation he heard the sound of glass shattering and suddenly felt a rather sizeable hand grab the back of his neck and pull him through the now glassless window.

"Wet grass" he thought. "On my hands" his mind pressed on. though before his analyzations could continue the source of the sizable hand that had been holding him only moments prior let out what could only be described as a "pants pissingly" terrifying roar" Zeke thankful was far to soaked from the strong downpour to notice the side effects of his terror.

Staggering to his feet he was able to get a look at his destroyer.

"A lion?" he thought. Though he had never heard of lions with wings and scorpion tails before.

Thinking quickly he shouted "Look a distraction!" and pointed behind the creature. Against what he considered to be "all odds" it turned its head and looked in the direction he had pointed.

He would have liked to stay and muse on the creature's stupidity but instead opted to run his fever-stricken ass in the opposite direction.

"oh." he said rather solemnly realizing after he had only ran about six feet that there had been a considerably steep cliff five feet behind him.


	2. My brain is quite baffled

Zeke dreamed as often as any another person, yet his dreams seem to take on considerably peculiar themes at times such as now he was dreaming of having a conversation with a lobster named Lobster about the subtle nuances of the Ghostbusters movies that most people were to dim to comprehend, He was about to point out how the appearance of slimer could be likened to the apprecetion of Hamlet's dead father in the Shakespearean classic, when Lobster the lobster suddenly screamed "safety dance" and threw an enormous boulder at him.

"I've never even read Hamlet." he mumbled while entering the waking world. Suddenly the memory of previous events filled his mind.

"Man do I have weird dreams." He said chuckling. He tried to bring his left hand to his head but noticed that it was quite bulky and solid after observing it for a second he realized what it was.

"A cast, my hand is in a cast." he said admittedly sounding quite stupid saying it. His figures poked out of the top of it all except one which had a stint on it. "I somehow managed to break my hand and my finger." he spoke again still sounding quite dim.

Inspecting the rest of his body he found that while his hand and finger were the only parts broken the rest of him wasn't in great shape either bandages over his right wrist, chest, left thigh, right ankle, and one around his head like a sweat band. "How in the name of what-have-you did I end up like this?" he thought. "What if the window and lion thing were real?"

Though before he could move on to his next thought he suddenly realized he wasn't in a hospital as he had previously assumed. No he was in what appeared to be a rather cozy room with a distinct cottage feel to it. He also took note that he was lying in a bed, just big enough to hold his frame. Though covered by a blanket it was quite clear to him that he was in a state of nakedness.

"Well this certainly isn't a hospital." he mumbled.

"Oh! Your awake!" a voice suddenly spoke rousing him from his thoughts, it somehow managed to sound both excited and calm simultaneously. A young woman came in through a door on the side of the room opposite the bed. "I was so worried, when I found you at the bottom of that cliff you were in horrible shape cuts and bruises all over your body and your wrist..." she paused as he briefly glanced at his cast before restoring eye contact. "Not just that, but you had a dreadful fever, I was scarred you weren't going to make it, especially since I've never treated an animal like you before, I had to borrow a book on primate care from Twilight Sparkle, she's a friend of mine, just so I'd know how to properly set your wrist."

She paused looked around awkwardly for a moment, she clearly didn't speak for such long periods that often.

"Um, could you please take this?" she said holding out an orange and yellow capsule. "It'll help with the pain." Zeke moved his shoulders a bit and noted that they actually were quite sore. Taking the pill from her hand he swallowed it. "I'll get you something to eat." she said before stepping out of the room.

"So..." he paused "she found me after my encounter with the strange lion and brought me here, though I wonder why she didn't get me to a hosb... wait... wait... hmm... was that a goddamn talking horse?" He searched his memory to confirm this and yes that was in fact a goddamn talking horse.

"How hard did I hit my head." he said bringing his non cast bearing arm to his head. "Wait did she call me a primate?"

He thought about it for a moment. "Well yah I guess I am technically a primate." he said shrugging his shoulders, the fact that they didn't hurt as much this time suggested that the capsule was taking affect.

"Um, I'm back." said the goddamn talking horse coming back into the room. Now that he had come to terms with what she was he had a chance to get a better look at her she had yellow fur yet her hair or more acutely her mane was a light pink and covered one of her eyes. "I didn't need a book to know you'd like these." she said before using her mouth to remove a plate that was balanced on her back and place it on his lap, the plate held four bananas.

"Hehehe..." he laughed lightly "..." He suddenly burst out laughing, cause the goddamn talking horse to cower back several steps.

"I'm sorry do you not like bananas?" she said sounding rather frightened.

"hehehehe..." he choked out a few more laughs before continuing."No, no, I must apologize for my outburst." It had been a long time since he had laughed that hard "You see I LOVE bananas."


End file.
